Free Republic

Internal political instability led to recent provocations by N. Korea: CIA chief By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's recent provocations have come from political instability following the alleged health problems of its leader Kim Jong-il late last year, a top U.S. intelligence official said. "There also are legitimate questions being raised about the internal stability of North Korea, given Kim Jong-Il's health problems, uncertainty about succession, the weak economy, and the persistent food shortages," Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told a forum in Los Angeles Monday. "The result is that North Korea remains...

Succession Plans Still Murky 2009-04-20 North Korea's leader appears increasingly ill, and time may be running out to find a successor. This picture, taken some time in 1992, shows current North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (R) and then-leader Kim Il Sung (L), inspecting a soccer ground in Pyongyang. WASHINGTON—Appointments to North Korea’s National Defense Commission (NDC) during recent meetings of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament show that leaders of the tightly closed country have begun to finalize plans for a successor to the ailing Kim Jong Il, analysts say. The 12-member NDC, chaired by supreme leader Kim Jong Il, is...

Soviet relics feel the pain as Russian crisis deepens Luke Harding reports from Dushanbe in Tajikistan on how Moscow's recession has seen the sacking of thousands of guest workers from the central Asian republics. Now they are going home to poverty - and their governments are under threat Luke Harding The Observer, Sunday 12 April 2009 Until last month, Zafar Kasimov was working in a cement factory in St Petersburg. Now, however, he is back home from Russia and scraping a living in Tajikistan, central Asia's most hard-up nation. "My Russian boss told me there was no more work," Zafar,...

/begin my translation Kim Jong-il Recuperating at a Pyongyang Hospital Washington - Noh Jung-min 10/22/08 N. Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, who dropped out of sight for nearly two months, is said to have moved his residence to a hospital in Pyongyang. He delegated all his decision-making power (to others,) and ruling party's Personnel Department and (N. Korean) military are (frequently) at odds with each other over policy matters, according to a Chinese source on N. Korea. Jang Sung-taek (Kim's brother-in-law,) who is viewed as currently wielding a real power by foreign media, does not have as much power as the...

/begin my translation Something Happened? All N. Korean Diplomatic Missions Ordered to be on Stand-by N. Korea's diplomatic missions all over the world were ordered on Oct. 17 to stay at their mission, refraining from going out, and expect important announcement from their government. Sources explained they expect that official announcement could be made in a few days. They speculate that it is related to inter-Korean relationship or Kim Jong-il's health. /end my translation

Morgan Stanley weighing possible merger: report Wed Sep 17, 2008 8:46am EDT SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Investment bank Morgan Stanley is weighing whether it should remain independent or merge with a bank, given the recent turbulence in the company's share price, broadcaster CNBC reported on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley officials were not in merger talks as of late Tuesday, CNBC said, citing unnamed people close to the matter. "But senior people at Morgan concede that further zig-zags in the company's stock price could and possibly will force the company to change course and seek a merger partner, probably a well capitalized bank,"...

Strained Vietnam economy hit by fresh ratings blow Reuters - 2 hours 12 minutes ago OTHER STORIES > Moody's statement..[ID:nWLA318] > Fitch statement................[ID:nHKG200860] (Additional reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam; editing by Neil Fullick) - HANOI, June 4 - Moody's downgraded its ratings outlook on Vietnam to negative from positive on Wednesday, the second outlook cut in a week as the economy grapples with 25 percent inflation and rising trade and current account deficits. ADVERTISEMENT v Moody's Investors Service said the swing in ratings outlook reflected its view that Vietnam's economic imbalances were greater than anticipated, but it also noted strengths...

UK financial system at risk from new shocks, says Bank Gabriel Rozenberg and Christine Seib Britain’s financial system is vulnerable to new shocks in the wake of its most severe challenge for decades, and banks and authorities must learn the lessons of the crisis, the Bank of England says today. In its first detailed analysis of the squeeze that has engulfed credit markets since the summer, the Bank says that financial institutions have become more fragile and that the availability of credit may tighten. In turn, it sounds a warning that tighter lending conditions could spell serious fallout for the...

Refugees to flee 'arc of instability' to Europe By Mike Pflanz in Kajo Keji Last Updated: 2:16am BST 21/06/2007 Fresh waves of migrants will attempt to reach Europe unless more is done to rebuild their war-torn homelands, the United Nations refugee chief has said. Somalian refugees attend a UN sponsored event to mark 'World Refugee Day' in Nairobi The number of refugees running from a "boiling arc of instability" from Somalia through the Middle East to Afghanistan jumped 14 per cent to 9.9 million last year. A further 24.5 million have become "internally displaced people" - refugees in their own...

China: Bachelor bomb Dudley L. Poston Jr. and Peter A. Morrison International Herald Tribune WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2005 SANTA MONICA, California In a trend fraught with troubling political and social implications, China will soon find itself with a marriage-age population remarkably out of balance, with about 23 million more young men than women available for them to marry in this decade and the next - what demographers term a "marriage squeeze." This impending surplus of unattached young men could be a driving force behind increased crime, explosive epidemics of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and even international threats to...

China's widening income gap threatening social stability: governmentMon Aug 22, 1:17 AM ET BEIJING (AFP) - China's rapidly widening income gap has reached dangerous levels, risking social instability by 2010 if the present trend continues, a government report warns. "China's growing income gap is likely to trigger social instability after 2010 if the government finds no effective solutions to end the disparity," the Ministry of Labour and Social Security warned in the China Daily. Su Hainan, president of the ministry's income research institute, found income disparity in China had reached the crucial "yellow" stage -- the second most serious in...

It's India Above China in New World OrderHBSWK Pub. Date: Jul 28, 2003 Can India overtake China? That's the title of an influential new article in Foreign Policy magazine. A Q&A with authors Yasheng Huang of MIT and Tarun Khanna of HBS. by Martha Lagace, Senior Editor, HBS Working KnowledgeComparing India and China is to embark on an old puzzle that has fascinated smart people for centuries. The newer question of economic leadership, however?Which country will overtake the other in the foreseeable future?" —is an urgent and important one, according to a provocative article in the July-August issue of...

 Shanghai violence exposes 'China risk' Kazumasa Higashi / Yomiuri Shimbun CorrespondentThe violent demonstration against Japanese and Japanese establishments that took place Saturday in Shanghai came as a great shock to the 4,500 Japanese companies in the city. As many of the firms are expected to take protective measures to deal with the situation, it is likely that new projects will be stalled. Workers of a Japanese company reportedly staged a strike in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. The spread of anti-Japanese movements is expected to cause Japanese companies to suspend projects to set up affiliates in China and review their business strategies...

...Assailants threw a grenade into the apartment of a prominent Kyrgyz opposition leader on Thursday but caused no casualties, opposition and police said. The incident occurred just days after a heated parliamentary election that international observers said fell short of international standards for democracy.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Long-term instability in Iraq could give birth to an "Iraqi Hitler" if citizens continue to feel humiliated and despondent, Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar has said. Daily bombings and kidnappings have plagued Iraq since last year's U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein and the relentless Sunni-led insurgency has crippled reconstruction and development projects in the country. "This could in the long term create an environment in which an Iraqi Hitler could emerge like the one created by the defeat of Germany and the humiliation of Germans in World War I," Yawar told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks...

The Japanese NGO (non government humanitarian) group in support of freedom in North Korea and safety for North Korean refugees, R.E.N.K., has released secret, internal North Korean Workers (Communist) Party documents which indicated substantial concern by the regime's authorities about smuggling that involved Western influences/documents/videos, etc. and reaching North Koreans, as well as secret North Korean Party documents making it to the outside.Partial translation to follow--assistance requested of other Freepers (if they have time or comments) who have "Freepranslation" skills; (these docs were just released today on the web):Here is one of the North Korean internal documents showing heightened concern...

CAIRO, Egypt - While people around the world mourned the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, many Arabs warned that the U.S.-led war on terror and Washington's support of Israel has only spread, not reduced, global militancy and instability. "Sept. 11 was a tragic day in our history because so many innocent people were killed at the hands of militants, who find a fertile ground in our region in view of the biased U.S. policies toward Israel and against Arab causes," said 34-year-old banker Mahmoud Obeid in the Jordanian capital, Amman. "We don't hate the Americans as people, but we...

North [Korea] Deploys New 4,000 Km-Range Missiles North Korea has begun work on deploying intermediate range ballistic missiles (with ranges of 3,000~4,000km) it developed last year, building underground bases at two sites. This is much sooner than South Korean and American military authorities had expected. A high ranking government source said Tuesday that, "North Korea is in the middle of building two underground missile sites in Yangdok County, South Pyongan Province and Sangnam-ni, Hochon County, North Hamgyeong Province. Construction is about 70 to 80 percent complete." The source added, "In particular, U.S. spy satellites have discovered about 10 of...

Instability spreads as thousands flee from Zimbabwe (Filed: 08/11/2003) The effects of Robert Mugabe's regime are forcing thousands of people to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries - a situation that is threatening to destabalise the whole region, writes Tim Butcher in Gabrone. Less than a mile from the mirror-panelled banks and high-rise offices of Botswana's richest firms, penniless Zimbabweans gather on dusty street corners begging for work. Unregistered, unkempt and unlawful in a foreign land, the desperate men whisper "Piece work, piece work" sotto voce, meaning "odd job" to any passer-by. If you are brave enough to stop your car...

UN fears instability in Kabul after Mayor demolishes 'illegal' homes By Phil Reeves, Asia Correspondent 05 September 2003 Kabul has always been the exception, a haven amid an unstable country where American troops are still tracking down anti-government guerrillas at huge expense, where swaths of the landscape are no-go areas because of the threat of violence. But now trouble has come unexpectedly to the Afghan capital. To the disgust of the United Nations, Basir Salangi, the Kabul police chief, has begun flexing his muscles, underlining tensions between the US-backed Afghan authorities and the international community. His target comprises one-room mud-brick...